1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coin dispensing device. More specifically, the invention relates to a coin dispensing device which is suitable for use in an automatic vender machine and so forth for dispensing change.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known, various coin dispensing devices have been used. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,942,544, to Breitenstein discloses a coin dispensing device for a gaming equipment, such as a slot machine, in which a bowl-shaped hopper is provided on the interior of the gaming machine. Coins inserted by the patron fall into the hopper and become the coin supply to be dispensed in the event that the patron achieves a winning combination of the slot machine. On the back wall of the hopper, there is provided a pin wheel device that rotates through the coin supply and picks up individual coins around the periphery of the pin wheel. As the pin wheel rotates, the coins on the top of the pin wheel are fed along a knife track to a location where each coin exits the interior of the gaming machine and is dispensed into a coin tray for access by the patron. U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,550, to Shireman, discloses a pair of rotating, overlapping disks each with a plurality of coin receiving apertures. The disks rotate in opposite angular directions and coins are transferred from one disk to the other disk when the apertures line up. The axes of the disks are offset in that only one aperture in the upper disk lines up with one aperture in the lower disk so that only one coin dispensed at a time. A coin dispensing device that utilizes the Shireman apparatus must be large enough to accommodate the diameters of each of the two overlapping disks.
Further prior art has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,919, to Dabrowski, in which an apparatus uses a single rotating disk at the bottom of the hopper. The rotating disk is provided with a plurality of peripheral slot like passages that receive coins from the hopper and then spin the coins off the disk at a particular angular position so that the coins can be dispensed into a coin tray.
In addition to the foregoing, U.S. Pat. No. 32,799, to Abe, U.S. Pat. No. 3,680,566 to Tanaka, U.S. Pat. No. 4,437,478 to Abe, U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,515 to Goepner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,531, to Johnson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,373, to Glinka, U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,282, to Childers, U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,128, to Ristvedt, U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,274, to Abe, U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,625 to Okada, Asaki Seiko U.S.A. Inc. catalog (Aug. 20, 1989, can be listed as disclosing the relevant prior art. However, it should be noted that the listing of the prior art above should not mean the list is exhaustive and as the result of extensive search. Therefore, the foregoing statement should be appreciated as a disclosure of the prior art presently known to the applicants and the owner of the invention.
Typically, a conventional coin dispensing device includes a loose coil dispensing mechanism which receives the weight of loose coins stored in a coin storage, such as a hopper. In such construction, the accurate operation of the coin dispensing mechanism cannot be assured due to the weight of the coins loaded thereon. In particular, when relatively large amount of coins are stored in the loose coin storage, the operation of the coin dispensing mechanism can become uncertain.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, there is a proposal in Japanese Patent Application No. 3-94695 (corresponding to the co-pending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 07/645,966, entitled "Coin Dispensing Device", by Stanley P. Dabrowski), in which the coin dispensing mechanism will not directly subject the weight of the coins stored in the coin storage.
In the practical construction disclosed in the above-mentioned co-pending Japanese Patent Application, a coin dispensing device for dispensing loose coins from a coin hopper comprises a base plate, a first rotating disk mounted on the base plate, which first rotating disk has a central feed aperture, a fixed disk mounted to the base plate and beneath the first rotating disk, the fixed disk having a dispensing slot aligned with the central feed aperture, a second rotating disk mounted on the based plate and beneath the fixed disk, the second disk offset from the dispensing slot, and the second rotating disk including at least one pusher ball on the surface thereof cooperating with the dispensing slot, whereby loose coins from the coin hopper are fed into the central feed aperture of the first rotating disk, from which the coins fall into the dispensing slot in the fixed disk and are dispensed down the dispensing slot by the movement of the pusher ball on the second rotating disk and exit the coin dispensing device. The first rotating disk has a supply member. The supply member has an arc shaped side wall which is connected with the first rotating disk in tangential direction at one end. The other end of the arc shaped side wall is terminated at the central feed opening. The arc shaped side wall extends vertically.
The entire disclosure of the above-identified co-pending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 07/645,966 is herein incorporated by reference for the sake of disclosure.
However the invention of Dabrowski in the co-pending U.S. Pat. Application as identified above, provides certain improvement for operation of the coin dispensing mechanism by avoiding the load of coin from loading thereon and thus for loose coin dispensing performance, there are still remained problems to be solved.
For instance, in the supply member provided in the first rotating disk, since the arc shaped side wall is oriented vertically, force is exerted on a plurality of coins in a direction of aligning the coins to occasionally cause interlocking of a plurality of coins, when the coins are guided to the central feed aperture from the coin hopper according to counterclockwise direction of the first rotating disk. In such case, smooth rotation of the first rotating disk is interfered so that the coins cannot be guided to the central feed aperture. Although the push ball employed in the second rotating disk as the pushing means is advantageously employed for avoiding excess load to be exerted on the motor for rotatingly driving second rotating disk by the construction in which the push ball is normally biased by a spring to fall onto the fixed disk through the central aperture of the first rotating disk and slides below the coins with depressing the spring downwardly to prevent the excess load from being exerted on the motor when the interlocking of the coins to be dispensed is caused by the action of the push ball, it can make it impossible to dispense the coins by sliding of the push ball below the coins.